Healthcare Realty Q4 2025 Earnings Call - Turnaround Accelerates: Asset Sales, Cost Cuts and Redevelopments Set Stage for Core NOI Growth
Summary
Healthcare Realty closed 2025 with the hard work now showing in the numbers. Management says the three-year strategic overhaul is tracking ahead of plan: $1.2 billion of dispositions sold at a blended 6.7% cap, $10 million run-rate G&A savings, a revamped asset management and leasing platform, and net debt to EBITDA reduced to 5.4x from 6.4x. Full-year normalized FFO was $1.61 per share, same-store cash NOI grew 4.8% for the year, and Q4 same-store cash NOI rose 5.5%. Management repurchased $50 million of stock in January and launched a $600 million commercial paper program to widen financing options.
The company is deliberately cautious on growth. 2026 guidance shows a midpoint normalized FFO of $1.61, flat year over year on the surface, but management says that embeds roughly 5% core earnings growth that offsets disposition and deleveraging dilution. Priorities for capital deployment are clear and ranked: redevelopments (yield on cost about 10%), selective buybacks, and accretive JVs only. Key risks remain cost of capital and valuation gaps; management argues the stock is cheap relative to intrinsic value, but admitted financing constraints will limit external acquisitions unless returns are clearly accretive.
Key Takeaways
- Management says the three-year turnaround is ahead of plan after a fast operational revamp and leadership changes.
- Full-year normalized FFO was $1.61 per share, beating the midpoint of earlier guidance by $0.03; Q4 normalized FFO was $0.40.
- Same-store cash NOI grew 4.8% for 2025, with Q4 same-store cash NOI up 5.5%; management forecasts 2026 same-store cash NOI growth of 3.5% to 4.5%.
- Company completed $1.2 billion of disposals at a blended 6.7% cap rate, exiting 14 non-core markets and improving portfolio concentration in higher growth MSAs.
- Net debt to EBITDA fell to 5.4x from 6.4x after repaying roughly $900 million of debt in 2025; rating outlooks from Moody’s and S&P moved to stable.
- G&A cost cutting hit target, achieving a $10 million run-rate saving and bringing total G&A to $45 million, which management says ranks favorably vs peers.
- Asset management overhaul produced measurable leasing improvements: cash leasing spreads and tenant retention both improved, and the company executed ~5.8 million sq ft of leasing in 2025, including 1.6 million sq ft of new leases.
- Redevelopment program is a capital priority, targeting yields on cost near 10%; average redevelopment projects are roughly $10 million and run $200 to $300 per square foot.
- Redevelopment lease-up momentum is real but backloaded. Management expects most redevelopment earnings benefits to materialize in 2027 and beyond.
- Capital allocation priorities for 2026 are disciplined: 1) redevelopments, 2) buybacks, and 3) JVs only if accretive. Guidance excludes any incremental acquisitions or buybacks beyond the $50 million already executed.
- Management repurchased $50 million of stock in January and has $450 million remaining under authorization, while noting the current cost of capital limits balance-sheet funded external growth.
- Company launched a $600 million commercial paper program and assumes refinancing $600 million of bonds due in August at a low 5% coupon, up from the current 3.5% coupon.
- Dividend was right-sized earlier, now described as well-covered; Q4 FAD per share was $0.32 and dividend payout ratio was about 75% for the quarter, producing a near 6% yield.
- Portfolio fundamentals cited as supportive: a 1.3 million sq ft active pipeline, national demand outstripping supply, and completions near historic lows for outpatient medical.
- Market pricing context: management sees core MOB cap rates in the high 5s to low 6s, core plus in the low 6s to upper 6s; private buyers are active and transaction volumes are elevated.
- Guidance nuance: the 2026 FFO midpoint of $1.61 is flat year over year on headline, but management insists it contains roughly 5% organic/core earnings growth offset by one-time dilution from sales and deleveraging.
Full Transcript
Kate, Conference Operator: Thank you for standing by. My name is Kate, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Healthcare Realty fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Ron Hubbard, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Ron Hubbard, Vice President of Investor Relations, Healthcare Realty: Thank you for joining us today for Healthcare Realty’s fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. A reminder that except for the historical information contained within, the matters discussed in this call may contain forward-looking statements that involve estimates, assumptions, risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements represent the company’s judgment as of the date of this call. The company disclaims any obligation to update this forward-looking material. A discussion of risks and risk factors are included in our press release and detailed in our filings with the SEC. Certain non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed on this call. A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures may be found in the company’s earnings press release for the quarter ended December 31, 2025. The company’s earnings press release and earnings supplemental information are available on the company’s website.
I’d now like to turn the call over to our President and CEO, Pete Scott.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Thanks, Ron. Joining me on the call today are Rob Hull, our COO, and Dan Gabbay, our CFO. Also available for the Q&A portion of the call is Ryan Crowley, our CIO. 2025 was a transformational year at Healthcare Realty 2.0. When I joined the company, it quickly became apparent that we had an opportunity to become the clear leader in the outpatient medical sector. We have the best-in-class portfolio, we have scale in the right markets, and we are aligned with leading health systems. We also had the makings of a great team, but we needed to execute better and be more ambitious. In a short period of time, we have added talent across the organization that further differentiates our platform. I am immensely proud of the team and how they rose to the challenge during this critical time.
We have more to do, and it will not always be a linear path, but our mission is simple and unwavering: To operate and make decisions every day to drive long-term shareholder value. To that end, I wanted to provide an update on the three-year strategic plan we published in July. Within the plan, we outlined the key steps being taken to overhaul all facets of the organization. I am pleased to report, in just a few quarters, we are tracking ahead of schedule. First, the revamp of the asset management platform is complete. We have a new leadership team that is spearheading improved alignment between asset management and leasing. In addition, we have incorporated a new leasing model to drive ROI across the portfolio. The heightened rigor for achieving the best possible economic returns is manifesting into better results.
Under the new platform, cash leasing spreads have improved 60 basis points, tenant retention has improved 220 basis points, and we see a meaningful uptick in our lease IRRs and lease payback period. The end result, as we repeat this quarter after quarter, will be a higher quality earnings stream and improved earnings growth. Second, we have successfully achieved our target of $10 million run rate G&A savings. Our total G&A expense now sits at $45 million and ranks favorably to peers. We also improved our property NOI margins by 60 basis points and believe there is additional margin expansion to attain over the coming years. Third, we have completed our ambitious asset disposition plan. We have sold $1.2 billion of assets at a blended 6.7% cap rate. Both numbers exceeded the high end of our expectations.
We exited 14 non-core markets and have improved our overall geographic footprint into high growth MSAs. We are confident we have the premier outpatient medical portfolio, confirmed by the nearly 5% same-store NOI growth number that we generated in 2025. Fourth, our balance sheet initiatives are complete. For the first time in years, we have much needed financial flexibility and modest balance sheet capacity for capital allocation. We have reduced net debt to EBITDA nearly a full turn to 5.4 times. We have extended our debt maturities and increased our liquidity, and our outlook has improved to stable from both Moody’s and S&P. We also took the long-overdue step to rightsize our dividend, something HR 1.0 struggled with for over a decade.
Our dividend is appropriate, well-covered, and under the right conditions, able to grow in the future, while at present offering a nearly 6% current yield to our shareholders. Fifth, we have strengthened our corporate governance and leadership team. We streamlined our board to 7 individuals. I believe we have one of the highest quality boards in the REIT industry, and I am very fortunate to have them on our team. I would also like to officially welcome Dan Gabbay as our CFO. Dan and I have known each other for 20 years, both as colleagues and then as a trusted advisor. He brings an exceptional blend of financial acumen, strategic insight, and capital markets expertise to the organization. Let me shift now to our 2025 results, which surpassed expectations across the board. Normalized FFO was $1.61 per share, exceeding the midpoint of our original guidance by $0.03.
Same-Store NOI growth was 4.8%, exceeding the midpoint of our original guidance by 140 basis points. We executed approximately 5.8 million sq ft of leases, and we are off to a strong start in 2026, with our health system dialogue at an all-time high. Turning to capital allocation priorities. As you are aware, outpatient medical transaction volume increased significantly in 2025, and we were fortunate to take advantage of this developing trend. Private investors clearly see the same positive backdrop we see: increasing patient and tenant demand, combined with a severe lack of new supply. Notwithstanding the positive backdrop, we are realistic that our current cost of capital and discount to intrinsic asset value limits external growth. Therefore, our capital allocation approach will remain incredibly disciplined as we invest balance sheet capacity, free cash flow, and capital recycling proceeds.
This targeted approach includes, 1, redevelopments. We are prioritizing redevelopment projects within our existing portfolio. We see attractive yields on cost of approximately 10%, and this is a significant source of NOI upside. 2, returning capital to shareholders through stock buybacks. In January, we purchased $50 million of stock and have authorization to purchase more. At our current stock price, we trade at a 9%+ FFO yield. 3, joint venture transactions. As we look at external growth opportunities, we are fortunate to have existing joint venture partners who want to increase their investments in outpatient medical. We will only pursue a JV transaction if we can create earnings accretion through a combination of investment returns and advantageous fee arrangements. As a reminder, other than redevelopments, we do not include any accretive capital allocation opportunities in our guidance.
Finishing now with our 2026 guidance and the value creation opportunity. The midpoint of our normalized FFO guidance is $1.61 per share. On the surface, this could be perceived as underwhelming due to the implied flat year-over-year growth. However, embedded within the midpoint of our guidance is approximately 5% core earnings growth, which offsets the necessary dilution we proactively incurred from our back-end-weighted 2025 dispositions and deleveraging. With our non-core dispositions now behind us and our balance sheet in great shape, we are well positioned to maximize our go-forward earnings growth potential. When you combine this with our upside from multiple expansion and attractive dividend yield, we see a compelling opportunity to deliver long-term value for our shareholders. Let me turn the call over to Rob, who will expand more on operations and leasing.
Rob Hull, COO, Healthcare Realty: Thanks, Pete. We finished the year strong, capping a robust year of leasing activity and showing early signs of operating improvement from our revamped asset management platform. For the year, we executed 5.8 million sq ft of leasing, including 1.6 million sq ft of new leases. Annual escalators across all leasing activity averaged 3.1%, lifting the portfolio average to 2.9%, a 7 basis point increase over last year. The weighted average lease term was nearly 6 years, improving our portfolio average. Tenant retention for the year was 82%, and same-store absorption of nearly 290,000 sq ft translated to over 100 basis points of occupancy gain. During the quarter, we executed 1.5 million sq ft of total leasing.
Tenant retention was strong at nearly 83%, our eighth consecutive quarter over 80%, and we saw same-store occupancy improve over 20 basis points. At our redevelopment properties, we have seen a 1,000 basis point increase in the lease percentage since the end of the third quarter. This increase was driven by solid demand across a number of our projects, including a 64,000 sq ft lease with St. Peter’s Health at a redevelopment in upstate New York. But the backdrop for industry fundamentals remains strong, supporting a steady flow of prospects into our 1.3 million sq ft pipeline. Demand in the top 100 MSAs continues to outstrip supply, and completions as a percentage of inventory remains near all-time lows. Additionally, robust investment by health systems in outpatient services is an ongoing positive trend.
Shifting to the operating platform, we have completed our transition to an asset management model. As Pete mentioned, we have seen early signs of improvement in lease economics as our revamped platform creates greater accountability closer to the real estate to drive better results. As we look ahead, maintaining financial discipline around leasing, further refining operating processes, and improving tenant satisfaction are important objectives for our team and the sustainability of these results. This new platform also emphasizes developing and maintaining key relationships with our health system partners. Recent efforts have led to a meaningful uptick in lease activity with a number of these systems. A few examples worth noting include: in Connecticut, we executed 65,000 sq ft of leases with Hartford Healthcare, backfilling the Prospect Medical space. We received a substantial credit upgrade, and we retained the full $3 million of NOI.
With this transaction, our relationship with Hartford Healthcare has grown to nearly 250,000 sq ft across 15 buildings that are 94% occupied. In Memphis, Baptist extended 15 leases totaling nearly 170,000 sq ft for 8 additional years. In addition, they signed 3 new leases totaling 25,000 sq ft for a blended term of 10 years. Our portfolio with Baptist is now 99% leased. The Baptist deal is just one example of how our reinvigorated platform is leading our health system partners to want to do more with us. Systems are re-leasing space early and expanding tenancy in our buildings.
On top of this, of the 1.4 million sq ft of single tenant expirations in 2026 and 2027, we have already executed renewals or are in the lease documentation phase for over half of this space, with more to come. Included in these renewals are a 154,000 sq ft, eight-year renewal with Tufts Medicine in Boston. The existing lease with Tufts was scheduled to expire in 2027. Three lease extensions totaling 142,000 sq ft with Advocate Health in Charlotte for an average of 7 years. The cash leasing spread was in excess of 5%, and a 39,000 sq ft renewal with Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston that was set to expire in late 2026. I want to congratulate our team on a great finish to the year.
Coming into 2026, our team is executing on our strategy extremely well, positioning us for further occupancy gains that will drive meaningful NOI growth. I will now turn it over to Dan to discuss financial results.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty: Thanks, Rob, and thank you, Pete, for the introduction. It’s nice to meet everyone over the phone, and I look forward to meeting in person over the coming quarters. This morning, I’ll provide some additional color on fourth quarter 2025 results, our capital allocation activity, and our initial 2026 guidance outlook. But before that, I’ll quickly introduce myself. As Pete mentioned, we have an extensive history working together as colleagues and at his prior firm, where I served as an advisor to the company on several strategic transactions. My 20-year career in investment banking will be an asset as we instill greater financial discipline in the organization and continue to restore our financial credibility with shareholders and the analyst community.
As some of you already know, I’ve worked closely with most REITs in the healthcare sector, advising on equity and debt strategies to minimize cost of capital and advising on transformative mergers and acquisitions. This will enable me to bring another strategic perspective to our C-suite. I’ve also had the pleasure to work with some current members of the Healthcare Realty team, dating back nearly a decade. While it has only been a few short weeks, I have had the opportunity to get better acquainted with the entire executive management team and our highly experienced board. I am extremely impressed with the caliber, professionalism, and execution mindset of this team. They have quickly transformed the operating platform, improved portfolio quality, and reset the outlook for the company. I am honored to work alongside them in my new role, and with that, I’ll turn back to our results.
2025 ended strong. In Q4, we reported normalized FFO per share of $0.40 and same-store cash NOI growth of 5.5%. Additionally, FAD per share was $0.32, resulting in a quarterly dividend payout ratio of 75%. Our outperformance this quarter was driven by 103 basis points of year-over-year same-store occupancy gains, 3.7% cash leasing spreads, and continued property-level and G&A expense controls.... As a result, we are proud to have delivered full year normalized FFO per share of $1.61, FAD per share of $1.26, and same-store cash NOI growth of 4.8%. Turning to capital allocation, Q4 remained active with nearly $700 million in dispositions. Proceeds were primarily used to pay off our 2027 term loans.
Inclusive of our bond repayment earlier this year, we repaid $900 million of debt and extended maturities on our remaining term loans and credit facility by 12-24 months. Leverage decreased to 5.4x from 6.4x at the beginning of the year, ahead of target and the timing laid out in our strategic plan. Going forward, we will be prudent and opportunistic deploying capital. In January, we utilized $50 million of disposition proceeds to repurchase 2.9 million shares, and we have $450 million remaining under our current authorization. Overall, the Healthcare Realty team delivered results ahead of or in line with all metrics discussed in our July strategic plan, allowing us to be more front-footed as we position into 2026.
Turning to 2026 guidance, which you can find on page 30 of our Q4 supplemental report published last night, we are forecasting normalized FFO per share of $1.58-$1.64, representing $1.61 at the midpoint. These results are driven by lease-up and positive releasing spreads in our core portfolio, which we expect to generate same-store cash NOI growth of 3.5%-4.5%. G&A is anticipated to be between $43 million and $47 million, in line with the strategic plan. Sources of capital for the year will include modest asset sales, proceeds from a note receivable maturing in early 2026, and free cash flow post dividends of approximately $100 million at the midpoint of our guidance.
Uses will include our asset level capital plan outlined in our guidance and includes the $50 million already utilized towards share repurchases. Recall that our guidance does not include any additional acquisitions, developments, or incremental share repurchases. Finally, I would like to call out a couple items related to our balance sheet. First, we assume the $600 million bonds due this August will be refinanced with new bonds in the low 5% coupon area mid-year, as compared to the existing coupon of 3.5%. Second, we published an additional press release last night disclosing our new $600 million commercial paper program. Similar to other REITs in the sector, accessing the CP market will allow us to further diversify our capital sources and reduce our interest costs compared to our line of credit.
The size is in line with other REITs and consistent with rating agency frameworks for our mid-triple B ratings. Last but not least, we expect full-year leverage in the mid-5x net debt to EBITDA range, although figures can fluctuate modestly from quarter to quarter. With that, I’ll turn the call back to Pete for any closing remarks.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Thanks, Dan. I’d like to finish by thanking our incredible team for their tireless efforts and laser focus on delivering excellent results. They didn’t miss a beat during Winter Storm Fern, despite the impact in Nashville. I am energized and excited every day working with this team. With that, operator, let’s open the line for Q&A.
Kate, Conference Operator: At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We request that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Juan Sanabria with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Juan Sanabria, Analyst, BMO Capital Markets: Hi, thanks for the time and welcome, Dan. Just curious on the same-store NOI guidance for 2026. You obviously had a, a strong year for 2025, but just curious on the implied decel on the 2026 guidance and the, and the piece parts, or assumptions assumed in, in that same-store NOI, whether it’s occupancy, retention, et cetera.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. Let me spend some time on that, Juan. I mean, obviously, 4.8% is a pretty strong number that we posted in 2025, and again, we also have some absorption benefit. I think we all saw the over 100 basis points of absorption we experienced, which is certainly a significant, you know, benefit within our same-store pool, and that aided us getting up, you know, close to 5%. I would say this, as we think about the 3.5%-4.5% for 2026, you know, look, we’re gonna push the envelope across the four main drivers, and those drivers are escalators, retention, absorption, and cash leasing spreads.
You know, from an escalators perspective, which is really the primary driver of our same-store growth, it’s probably 75% or greater of the same-store number we achieve every year. You know, we’re averaging 3% or greater at this point in time on all lease deals we’re signing. From a retention perspective, you know, which limits downtime and capital we have to put in our assets if it can retain tenants. We’re trending towards the mid- to, you know, low 80s on that, probably closer to the mid-80s than the low 80s when you look at the last couple of quarters, and that’s going in the right direction for us. I think from an absorption perspective, we do expect more absorption this year as well, and we think that will certainly benefit our numbers.
It’s a little soon to give exact figures on that. I don’t know that it will be 100 basis points like we did last year, because we’re at 92% now, but we certainly expect to see positive absorption, as we work our way through the year. And then, you know, the last piece of it, which gets a lot of airtime, and appropriately so, on cash leasing spreads, that is actually probably the smallest driver overall, when you think about same store. But I think it’s more important because, from an industry health perspective, I think it gives you a sense as to where things stand from a supply-demand perspective, and today, demand is much greater than supply. And our cash leasing spreads have ticked up in the second half of the year.
Like I said, we’re going to look to push the envelope as much as we can.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty6: Thanks, Pete. And then just-
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty6: On the CapEx piece, curious if you can give any guardrails with regards to FAD, relative to the $61 normalized FFO expectation for 2026.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. Juan, it’s Pete again. In the future, I’ll probably have Dan answer most of these, but given it’s his first call, I’ll jump in a bit on this. You know, if we’re flat from an FFO perspective, and I think everyone is pretty aware of the pieces as to you know, the core earnings growth, and then obviously, the necessary dilution we took from deleveraging and the asset sales. If we’re flat from an FFO perspective, I’d assume we’re flat from a FAD perspective as well. We ended last year in the $1.26 range, and we’ve actually given the maintenance capital number within our guidance page as well to help everybody triangulate on their modeling and forecast.
So I would assume the same thing for FAD that we are assuming for FFO.
Kate, Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Nick Ielico with Scotiabank. Your line is open.
Nick Ielico, Analyst, Scotiabank: Thanks. I think you talked a little bit about this in terms of the last question about the absorption potential. I just wanted to be clear that you said, you know, some of that potential. Was that just the same-store number, or is that also, you know, applying to redevelopment leasing? And maybe if you can just give us an update on kind of how to think about redevelopment project timing, delivering, lease-up, and how that ultimately could create some, you know, earnings benefit beyond this year.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah, for sure, Nick. It’s Pete again. What I quoted before was purely in the same-store bucket, and I’m glad you brought up the redevelopment portfolio, because I think that’s going to be a big driver of total portfolio occupancy increasing over the coming years. And I think you mentioned that in your pre-call note last night. You know, as I think about redevelopments, we think it’s a great way for us to allocate capital. I was very intentional in listing that first in the prepared remarks. You know, in the fourth quarter of last year, we had a sequential 500 basis points increase within the redevelopment portfolio from leases signed. I don’t know if it was totally clear in our prepared remarks, but we did sign a very big new lease deal in January with St.
St. Peter’s Health up in upstate New York. And so we would expect probably another 500 basis points of incremental lease up to show up in our supplemental in or at the end of the first quarter. And so I’d say we have really, really good momentum, and this is the key driver to meeting or exceeding the three-year earnings growth framework. You know, those leases we’re signing now, the real benefits don’t start until 2027, but I would say our confidence level in our earnings framework is certainly increasing as we continue to lease up within that bucket. So again, I’m glad you brought this up. Whatever I quoted from an absorption perspective is just to the same store pool, and we’d like to do even better in the redevelopment bucket.
Nick Ielico, Analyst, Scotiabank: All right. Yeah. Thanks, Pete. And then, second question is just going back to acquisition potential. I know you talked about stock price not being, you know, exactly where you’d want it to be to, to fund that, but, can you also just talk about, like, just a profile of potential acquisitions? Because clearly there’s, you know, this sort of issue where you’re dealing with cap rates are, you know, low in some cases, which is good for selling assets, but it makes it difficult to, you know, to buy assets. I don’t know if there’s also a profile of what you’re, you know, you’re looking at that would, you know, sort of enhance your your yield and future growth from acquisitions when, when you decide to do it. Thanks.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. Well, two pieces to that, Nick. The first is, if we do no acquisitions or stock buybacks this year, which our guidance does not incorporate any of that, you know, we would actually end up in probably the low fives from a Net Debt to EBITDA perspective, or below our target, right? So there is a little bit of balance sheet capacity. It’s modest, but it’s probably in the $200 million-$300 million dollar, you know, range, that, that varies based upon buyback versus any kind of JV, you know, acquisition opportunity we could look at. But just to be clear, as we think about JV deals specifically, I mean, we do have partners that would like to grow with us. We do have constraints on how much we can grow.
I just pointed out, you know, the finite amount of capital we have, unless our stock trades at a materially better level than it does currently. But as we think about the yields, we would like to get on capital that we put out, our implied cap rate is somewhere in the low 7s, and we would not look to allocate any capital to even a JV transaction unless we felt like the yield to us, even if we’re funding it with balance sheet capacity, is greater than our implied cap rate. I mean, that’s just going to be an arbiter that we’re going to look at. So hopefully, that gives investors comfort that we’re not looking to go out and do a bunch of 5.5 cap rate, you know, deals just for the sake of doing deals.
We are going to be incredibly disciplined in how we put money out and make sure we are getting the best return possible on that money.
Kate, Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Seth Bergie with Citi. Your line is open.
Nick Joseph, Analyst, Citi: Thanks. It’s Nick Joseph here with Seth. How are you thinking about the dispositions going forward? Obviously, you were able to execute on a lot at good pricing and faster than expected. So what’s the plan from here? Is it more, you know, being on offense with dispositions or for any potential? How are you thinking about the portfolio?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. We’re carefully using the O word within the office here at the moment. You know, that came up a lot last quarter, and I’m not sure it helped us. But I would say from an asset sale perspective, let me just hit on it really from two different perspectives. So we’ve got $175 million of sales embedded within our guidance for this year. Within that, though, is about $70 million of deals that are closing early this year. That was part of our $1.2 billion disposition plan. They just leaked over into the beginning of 2026, and we are pretty clear that some could leak over into this year. But we expect to have all of that done in the very, very near term.
In fact, one’s done and one is imminently about to close within that $70 million. The other is a $45 million loan that’s expected to get repaid late March. And so after that, you’ve really got about $60 million of dispositions baked into our guidance. And if you recall, last quarter, I said we would consider selling some non-core, non-income producing assets as well. We do have a pretty significant, you know, land bank that I think is undervalued currently within our stock price. I think there’s a lot of things undervalued in our stock price, but certainly that’s one of them. So, you should assume we would look at certain things like that. But then, stepping back, what’s not in our guidance, like, would we consider selling core real estate?
I would say we would consider selling anything that’s going to maximize value to our shareholders. So, so nothing is off the table, but at the moment, that’s not baked into our guidance.
Nick Joseph, Analyst, Citi: That’s very helpful. Thank you. And then just given how active you have been as part of the transaction market, are there any insights, you know, either from buyers or competition that you’ve seen change over the last, call it, you know, 6-9 months?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Maybe I’ll start. I will ask Ryan to quickly comment, our Chief Investment Officer. I would say the biggest change that we’ve seen over the last year has been the availability of debt, the pricing of debt, and obviously, the LTVs that buyers are able to achieve. That has been probably the biggest benefit to why transaction, you know, volumes have picked up. But I will also say that the perpetuation of demand exceeding supply, continued absorption, just nationwide in outpatient medical assets, has certainly piqued the interest of private capital, and there’s no shortage of private capital that is looking to enter this space or increase their exposure into this space, and I think you’ve seen that in some of the volume numbers that are out there. I’ll ask Ryan to maybe comment on cap rates for a second.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty5: Sure. We’re beginning to see more core assets come to the market, and those are pricing at cap rates in the high 5s to low 6s, while core plus is pricing in the low 6s to upper 6s, depending on property attributes. And of course, value-add properties are primarily IRR driven, not cap rate driven. But the, as Pete alluded to, buyer demand remains high, and the transaction volumes have been really elevated in the space.
Kate, Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Austin Wyrick with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Austin Wyrick, Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets: Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Pete, you’ve discussed in the past just how precious capital in this business is and, you know, your intent to target high retention. I think kind of putting a goal or maybe a stretch goal out there of 85% or better. What are you guys assuming as far as retention this year and how much visibility, I guess, beyond the single tenant deals you described, do you have into the remaining expirations for this year? Thanks.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. Hey, Austin. Well, I know the expiration question did come up a call or two ago, and I will say that has been top of mind for us, and I would expect to see a significantly improved lease expiration schedule when we come out with our next supplemental, especially working our way through the ’26 and ’27 expirations. We have a pretty good line of sight at this point into those, as you would expect. With regards to the multi-tenant you know, portfolio, I would say that we are expecting retention to be kind of in the 80%-85% you know, range. It will ebb and flow a little bit. Like, in the third quarter at 25, we were at, I think, 88%, and this past quarter, we were at close to 83%.
That kind of blends to, you know, 85%. So, I think the 80%-85% number is probably a pretty good assumption that we’ve embedded within our guide for this year.
Austin Wyrick, Analyst, KeyBanc Capital Markets: That’s helpful. And then, Peter or Rob, you guys footnoted and also flagged this 64,000 sq ft lease in January, a new lease. Was there any additional new leasing component to the nearly 1 million sq ft that have been signed year to date? And then can you just kind of talk about how negotiations are moving along for the 1.3 million sq ft pipeline? Thanks.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. I’ll have Rob jump in and talk about that deal. Obviously, I mentioned it quickly that, that one, and he could talk about new leasing in general. I mean, that’s with St. Peter’s, and we just had a ribbon-cutting ceremony with them up at that building. They took some other space as well in the building, too, and hopefully, have some appetite to grow even more. But it’s a big lease, and we’re excited to be expanding our exposure with them. Rob, why don’t you talk generally about 1 million sq ft, though?
Rob Hull, COO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. I think the 1 million sq ft certainly off to a strong start. You know, there is additional new leasing inside of that, inside of that 1 million sq ft that we’ve executed this quarter, as well as a number of renewals, some of which I covered in my prepared remarks. But I think in general, we’re extremely, you know, encouraged by the level of activity that we’re seeing. We expect that to continue as we move forward. The 1.3 million sq ft pipeline that I did mention is an active pipeline that is growing every day. Our team is continuing to add to that, and that will certainly feed our leasing, new leasing expectations in 2026.
Yeah, we’re just very optimistic on demand, as you can imagine. You know, health systems continue to move services from the inpatient setting to the outpatient setting, which is driving a lot of that demand, and we think that we’re well positioned to continue to capture that.
Kate, Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael German with BTIG. Your line is open.
Michael German, Analyst, BTIG: Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Pete, maybe just a couple, a quick question here on the CapEx number. I appreciate the guidance. I’m just curious, when we think about the stabilized portfolio and all the work that you’ve put into it, as we move through 2026, do some more leasing, get the asset management program, you know, for a full year here, is that kind of 15%-16% of NOI the right range for the maintenance CapEx, second gen leasing CapEx number on this platform going forward?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah, I would say it’s probably 15%-20%, is a little bit of a wider range that I would go with. But I think you’re right, we’ve been achieving 16%, 17%, so maybe I’m just being slightly conservative with bucketing that into the 15%-20% range. But I think that’s a good run rate number. I’d say if your retention continues to go up, I would expect that number to perhaps even tick down a little bit. But obviously, look, we are making a concerted effort to invest capital back into our portfolio, and that was one of the reasons why we decided to rightsize our dividend a couple of quarters ago to take that additional, you know, retained earnings and reinvest it back into redevelopment.
We think that is probably the highest and best use of our capital right now. So what I quoted before was purely just a, you know, maintenance capital number, and we are certainly investing above and beyond that at the moment. I think that will obviously be a more near-term investment that will eventually tail off in a couple years. But we think it’s the right place to invest capital today.
Michael German, Analyst, BTIG: Got it. That’s, that’s helpful. And you certainly made it clear kind of the discipline that you’re putting forward when you’re thinking about deploying capital. I’m just curious, again, with the improvement that you’ve managed to generate on the asset management side and maybe some success that you’re seeing on the redevelopment side, does that expand the scope of opportunity that you’re willing to look at, whether it be in the JV structure, or on balance sheet in terms of the type of assets that you would be comfortable bringing into the portfolio now with the confidence that you have on the asset management side?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. I mean, look, as I think about how we would bucket assets between what we would acquire and what we would do on balance sheet, I think we’ve got plenty of value add on balance sheet at the moment, and that’s our redevelopment portfolio. And again, we enhanced our disclosures last quarter. People can track the progress that we’re making there, so we have a report card every quarter to see how we’re doing, and I’d say we got a pretty good grade in the fourth quarter on that. You know, with regards to the external growth, you know, I think you’ve got capital that is more wanting to chase core and core plus right now, that frankly, we don’t have the cost of capital to allow us to do that on balance sheet alone.
So I think for the current time being, we’re gonna do any type of acquisition primarily through JVs, right? And like I said, we’ve got partners that want to grow in this space. And we do have some advantageous fee arrangements that allow our going-in yield to be much better than what the cap rate is for the, you know, transaction. And that’s where our focus would be today on any kind of external growth. But again, there’s a finite amount of capital we have with that to put to work this year, and we will compare that to what’s our FFO yield from a share buyback perspective, what are we looking at from a redevelopment perspective?
It all goes back to our balance sheet is in much better shape, and we have much needed free cash flow from the dividend adjustment to reinvest into our portfolio. We’re in a much better position nine months henceforth from when I began, to actually be able to talk about these things.
Kate, Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of John Kilczewski with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
John Kilczewski, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Pete, maybe if I just go back to your strategic plan, and I, I look at some of these pages, you know, you laid out $90 million of NOI upside from the redev and RTO portfolio, and then another $50 million of NOI from margin expansion, due to these processes. I guess I’m curious, how much of that do you feel like was captured in for you? What’s included in guide, and then what sort of longer term down the road, if you could help us bucket those?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah, that’s, that’s a good question, John. Let me see if I can’t give a couple of pieces on that. You know, as I said in my prepared remarks, we are tracking generally ahead of schedule, and that would also be attributed to how we’re thinking about the $50 million of NOI upside. But just to be clear, within our strategy deck, we just assumed $20 million-$40 million of NOI within the first, you know, 3 years just because there’s a lag. You spend the capital, you sign leases, but the commencement of those leases and when you get the full run rate benefit, just it takes time, right?
So as I would think about the $20 million-$40 million and the leasing we’ve done, it’s not just what we did in the second half of 2025, but also to start the year in 2026. As Rob mentioned, we’ve got about 1,000 basis points of incremental, you know, leased percentage within that bucket. So that’s a long preamble to basically get to... I think we’ve probably identified about $15 million of the $50 million at this point in time through the leasing activity we’ve done since the strategic plan went out. So that’s probably about a third of the $50 million of upside. But when you think about that relative to the $20 million-$40 million that was in that earnings framework, we’re probably about halfway there, right?
And I’d say that’s good progress, and it’s ahead of schedule. I’m not expecting it to be a benefit to 2026, purely because of the reason I gave before. You sign a lease, it takes a while to do the build-out and for that to commence, but we should start to see pieces of it build up in 2027 and then further benefit in 2028.
John Kilczewski, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Got it. Very helpful. And then-
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah.
John Kilczewski, Analyst, Wells Fargo: You answered this partially in the, in the last question, but just kind of fleshing out here on, you know, the, the guidance is no further buybacks. But is that simply a, a yield question for you when determining does incremental dollars go there versus even maybe more deleveraging? Although we’ve got some extra asset sales that are probably going towards the revolver. And then, you know, as you’re considering JVs, as you mentioned, is it simply what’s most accretive, or, you know, would you probably tilt towards the JV as you look to, you know, grow the business as long as that’s greater than your implied? Just would love to get your thoughts there.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. Look, I think it’s gonna be a combination of the three as we think about capital allocation priorities. I know for a fact it’s redevelopments that we will spend money. So it’s really, what about the other two? And I would say that we will look at, you know, both of those. I’d like to think we can accomplish a bit of both, but, you know, stock buybacks, we don’t control where our stock trades. So it’s hard for me to give you an exact number there, but I will say we’ve turned on at least the underwriting engine here with one of our partners to certainly look at, you know, deals that we can do within, you know, JVs.
Again, as I said, you should expect any yield that we would get would be greater than the implied cap rate we trade at right now.
John Kilczewski, Analyst, Wells Fargo: Got it. Thank you.
Kate, Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Troik with Green Street. Your line is open.
Michael Troik, Analyst, Green Street: Thanks, and good morning. Have you seen any change in the number of office repositionings across your markets? Is there any trend there, either up or down, in terms of just shadow supply from traditional office?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Nothing of note, I would say.
Rob Hull, COO, Healthcare Realty: No, I would say that, you know, no, we haven’t, you know. You’ve heard stories of, you know, one-off opportunities where people have been successful in that, but I would say generally that shadow, you know, sort of, supply, we’re just not seeing it, you know, in our markets, and with the space that we’re leasing. You know, we’re doing a lot of health system leasing, where they’re, you know, growing critical service lines inside of those buildings that requires, you know, certain parking ratios, certain building design. And so I think, you know, for what we’re doing, you know, that’s generally not a factor in our day to day.
Michael Muller, Analyst, JP Morgan: ... Makes sense. Maybe one on the balance sheet then, as interest rate swaps begin to burn off later this year, what sort of mix between fixed and floating rate debt are you targeting?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah, I’m going to let Dan take that one.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah, thanks. Finally got one. Appreciate it. It’s the first one. It’s a great question. You know, I think you’ve seen the balance sheet repair the company has undergone over the last 9, 12 months just from the dispositions. I think that’s something particularly important to protect that balance sheet and our leverage levels. I think when you think about fixed and floating mix, especially with the new commercial paper program, you know, we’re always looking to be most efficient with our balance sheets. We’re also looking to extend our maturities overall. We’ve got some good term loans and bonds in that cap structure right now.
I think a floating rate mix is, generally speaking, you know, mid-single digits to, you know, upper single digits proportion with respect to our overall debt, especially as we’re spending money on, you know, redevelopments this year. So something we’ll be prudent about. It may fluctuate up and down, but, you’re not gonna see us go, you know, all floating rate debt all of a sudden.
Michael Muller, Analyst, JP Morgan: Great. Thanks for the time.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty: Thanks.
Kate, Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Carroll with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Michael Carroll, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Yep, thanks. Pete, I want to circle back on your comments regarding the, the joint venture. I mean, it sounds like that these conversations are pretty far along. I’m not sure if it was just with one of those partners or if it’s a broader group. But what could these deals look like? I mean, would HR create some type of fund to go pursue deals, or, or could HR contribute assets into the fund to kind of, expand it and be a little bit more active? I guess, how do you think about that?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah, Mike, maybe I would say specifically that our comments have been on existing joint venture arrangements we have today, where we could look to grow and where our partners want to grow, and we already have, you know, those ventures effectively solidified. So we’re not talking about a new joint venture at the moment, but, you know, frankly, since you bring it up, I think that it is something that we will continue to consider. I think we have some, you know, real opportunities we could do with our current existing partner, and we’d like to grow with them. They would like to grow with us, but we certainly could look to expand that.
It’s tough to compete in this space today with all the private capital that is looking to chase deals, and our private counterparts that are GPs and have raised a lot of capital from those LPs, are having the time of their lives buying assets right now. I talked a bit about this when I was in my prepared remarks about private capital sees a lot of benefits to investing in this space. We see it too, and so we can’t just go out and buy core, core plus assets on balance sheet. Our cost to capital would get, I think, impacted quite significantly to the downside right now, so we would have to figure out ways to manufacture better returns. And it is something we are actively considering.
At the moment, we would do deals with our existing, you know, partner or partners, and we have, you know, very good structures lined up with them and a good dialogue.
Michael Carroll, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Great. And I don’t know if it’s premature to talk about this yet or not, but that private capital that’s looking to get into the MOB space, I mean, what type of returns are they typically targeting? I mean, are they just looking for the stability and have kind of a lower unlevered IRR hurdle they’re targeting- achieving? I guess, how are they thinking about the space?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah, maybe I’ll have Ryan answer that.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty: Sure. It really runs the spectrum. I mean, if you’re looking at a value add JV with institutional capital, they’re targeting high leverage, upper teens IRRs. But there’s also plenty of institutional, foreign, and domestic capital in the space that’s looking for very core product with credit, long-term leases, very high acuity, newer vintage, that are targeting much lower returns than that. So it runs a full spectrum, depending on the institutional capital you’re talking about.
Michael Carroll, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Great. Appreciate it. Congrats, Dan, for joining the team.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Thanks, Mike.
Kate, Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Muller with JP Morgan. Your line is open.
Michael Muller, Analyst, JP Morgan: Yeah, hi. So for the two questions, I guess, first, what’s the typical scope of the redevelopment that’s on your redevelopment page? It looks like they average about $10-$15 million each. Is it any square footage, lighting brightening, or, you know, just what, what in general? And then the second question, Pete, you talked about the areas where you’ve kind of met, exceeded expectations so far with the turnaround. Can you talk about, I guess, any aspects of it or areas where you may have run into more obstacles or things were more challenging than you originally thought?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Well, maybe I’ll start with the second question, you know, first. I will tell you, since I’ve joined this organization, every interaction I’ve had with people here has been a positive one. The toughest part of that is when you have to tell somebody that they can no longer be a part of this team and no longer be a part of the exciting things we have moving forward. That’s not fun. And that’s unfortunately something that we’ve had to do, but it’s been a very necessary thing in order for us to get our cost structure in line and get our earnings—you know—growth and trajectory headed in the right direction. I probably underestimated how difficult that was gonna be, and I’m being totally, you know, open and honest with everybody on this call on that one.
With regards to the typical, you know, scope, I would say the average project is probably in the, you know, $10 million area, and it’s probably in the $200-$300, you know, dollars a foot overall. And you’re really taking a building from a much older vintage, and you’re improving, you know, all the, you know, common areas, you’re improving the elevators, you’re improving the built out of the space with regards to, you know, each one of these individual tenants. I mean, it’s a significant reinvestment into an asset that probably has not been invested into for, call it, you know, 20-25, you know, years.
And so it’s really soup to nuts, taking something that’s much older vintage and converting it to, I wouldn’t call it the equivalent of a new development, but it gets pretty darn close to it, and you get some really good rental rate pickup. If you go back to our strategy deck, we actually put a really good example of the project we’re doing in White Plains, and the amount of, you know, leasing we’ve been able to generate with White Plains Hospital there, which is a Montefiore, you know, subsidiary. And we did soup to nuts on that, and it looks fantastic. You skin the outside, you put new windows in, you’re putting all new systems in, and, you know, you’re bringing it up to basically brand-new product.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty0: Got it. Okay. Thank you.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yep.
Kate, Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Omotayo Okosanya with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty0: Yes, good morning, everyone. Appreciate all the hustle on the operational improvements and the capital allocation discipline. Dan, congrats. Welcome aboard. Always good to have a fellow HBS guy in a seat like that. Question-wise, curious on the build-to-suit side of things. Again, just given how strong demand seems to be at this point, what’s going on with a whole bunch of hospital systems, just kind of curious on the BTS side, what that’s looking like, whether we can expect to see more activity on that front.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. Hey, hey, Tayo. And by the way, for someone that completed the Antarctica marathon, Ron Hubbard did not do you any favors, putting you towards the tail end of our Q&A list.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty0: I dialed in late. Not Ron’s fault.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. Yeah, I know. Well, next time we’ll get you a little further up. That was quite an accomplishment. You looked a little cold, in some of the pictures I saw, but congrats.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty0: Thank you.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Build to suits. Yeah, build to suits are happening. I would say developments, generally speaking, you do not see spec development happen right now in the outpatient medical space, and I just, I don’t know of any capital that’s looking to chase spec development. So development that gets done is definitely heavily, you know, pre-leased. So I don’t know that I would call that a build to suit, but I would put it in a similar, you know, category.
I think the challenges with new developments today, and it’s really one of the reasons why you’ve seen, you know, the deliveries and starts come down considerably, is costs have gone up so much the last, you know, 3-5 years, especially coming out of COVID, that the rental rates needed to get to the return necessary for a developer to want to start that project is pretty significant. So you have to have a health system or a tenant willing to step up and pay much higher rental rates than what’s in place right now. And so if they get done, great. I think there’s plenty of demand to allow for, you know, some development to happen in the space. I don’t think you’re gonna cannibalize existing product from that.
If anything, we’d like to try and draft off of those rental rates that are required, in order to get those types of deals to pencil. So they’re happening, out there in select markets and in select circumstances, but they’re happening a lot less than they have been in the past.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty0: Gotcha. That’s helpful. And then my second question, again, you do see some of the healthcare REITs actively selling out of MOB. Again, the argument being, you know, they’re trying to move to higher growth asset classes. I mean, what’s kind of your rebuttal to that, given, you know, this viewpoint that MOBs are also benefiting or should also be benefiting from kind of the changing U.S. demographics? Like, how do you kind of think about the space, and when you kind of think five years out, you know, are we dealing with an asset class where the earnings growth profile has improved materially, just kind of given some of these secular demand drivers that are happening?
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Yeah. Probably a good question, I think, maybe to end on. Look, I think there’s a pretty significant value creation opportunity, and that’s really what got me excited to take on this job and move to Nashville. You know, as you think about where we trade, it’s probably somewhere in the 10-11 times, you know, FFO at the moment. And I think personally, that kind of multiple is typically reserved for companies or sectors that are struggling, right? Let’s just, you know, be pretty candid about it. And frankly, I think that kind of multiple significantly undervalues our platform, right? As I said in the prepared remarks and as Dan said, we’ve entered 2026 front-footed. You know, fundamentals and outpatient medical are strong. Our portfolio is best in class, with our dispositions now complete.
Our balance sheet is a source of strength. We’ve overhauled our team, and we’re posting strong results, right? I also think it’s important to just note the way we look at it, we think we’re in a subsector of one. There is not one direct peer out there in the public markets. There are those that have exposures to this space, but they don’t have a hundred percent exposure to it like we do. And so we are starting to expand our thoughts about our peer sets and looking at other property types with similar earnings growth characteristics. And based upon this, we think that there’s expansion in our multiple that could be in front of us if we continue to execute on the strategic plan, and we think that that will create value for shareholders.
So that’s our mission, and that’s what we’re focused on right now.
Dan Gabbay, CFO, Healthcare Realty0: Fair enough. Good luck.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Thank you, Tayo.
Kate, Conference Operator: I will turn the call back over to Pete Scott for closing remarks.
Pete Scott, President and CEO, Healthcare Realty: Great. Well, look, we thank everybody for joining the call today, and we look forward to seeing all of you in person at, at least, many of you in person in Florida in a couple of weeks at the Citi conference. Thanks very much.
Kate, Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today’s call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.